Rail transport in Azerbaijan

So far 2,932 km of rail tracks including 2,117 km of carrier service lines, 810 km of industrial lines have been laid in Azerbaijan. In 1988, during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, territories of Azerbaijan with 240 km of rail tracks were occupied by Armenia. The railway link connecting the city Nakhchivan of Azerbaijan and other Azerbaijan's regions was broken in 1991.

Azerbaijan Railways serves with 176 stations. 2 of them (Bilajari and Shirvan) are completely automated. 12 stations have container yards. Keshle, Ganja and Khirdalan stations are able to supply high cube cargo containers.

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1,272 km of the total railway routes are electrified at 3 kV (3,000 V) DC. 1,126 km of railway roads are supplied with full automatic blocks. Just 479 km of railway links are provided with centralized dispatchers. There are no high-speed trains in Azerbaijan.[7]

• Russia: There is a direct Moscow - Baku train which runs 3 times weekly. The train passes through Volgograd, Astrakhan, and Makhachkala, and takes 3 nights. There are also direct trains from some other towns in Russia to Baku.
• Iran: Construction of the Astara (Iran) – Astara (Azerbaijan) railway is due to be completed in 2021. The Gazvin-Rasht-Astara railway route will integrate the national rail networks of Azerbaijan, Iran, and Russia. Azerbaijan allocated a preferential loan of $500 million for the construction of the line.[8]
• Turkey: The Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway, connecting Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, began operating in 2017.[9]

Baku is the only city with a metro system, the Baku Metro. Plans to expand the metro are underway, with additional subway systems to be constructed in Azerbaijan's most populated and developed cities.[10]

Construction of Baku Metro system was commenced in 1951 and completed in 1967. Its opening ceremony was held in November 6, 1967 with the first stretch with length of 6,5 km between Baki Soveti and Narimanov.

Presently Baku metro system includes lines with total length of 36,63 km, 25 station on 3 lines (Red line of 32,3 km with 21 station, Green Line of 2,2 km with 2 stations and Purple Line of 2,1 km with 2 stations), an electrical depot, administrative building.[11]

The total length of the platforms in the stations is 105m. The platforms allow the use of 5-car trains. Newly opened Purple Line stations are designed with platforms that allow the use of 7-car trains.

In 2019 the Baku suburban railway was launched.[12][13]

Azerbaijan is positioning itself as a transportation hub for East-West, North-South for freight trade in the region.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars rail link, with capacity to transport 1 million passengers and 5 million tons of freight a year, connects 3 countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey). At the same time it is a main freight and passenger link between Europe and China. The BTK Railway will also connect Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan to continental Europe.

Negotiations on Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway began in 2005. In 2007 the construction of the railway was commenced. The importance of the project is offering the most cost-effective transportation for the logistics sector that seeks a more economical way of delivering goods to target markets. Initially, the railway will carry nearly 1 million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight a year. But in the near future freight transportation potential will be up to 50 million tons a year.

On October 30, 2017 an inauguration ceremony for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railroad was held in Alyat, 70 kilometres (43 mi) southwest of Baku. The European Union called the opening of the railway “a major step in transport interconnections linking the European Union, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Central Asia”.

Approximately 504 kilometres (313 mi) of the BTK railway passes through Azerbaijan, with 246 kilometres (153 mi) through Georgia and 79 kilometres (49 mi) through Turkey.[14][15]

The North-South corridor with a length of 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) is designed to carry more than 20 million tons per year from India, Iran, and other Persian Gulf countries to the territory of Russia (the Caspian Sea) and further on to Northern and Western Europe.

The agreement among Russia, Iran, and India on the North-South International Transport Corridor was signed in Saint Petersburg (Russia) in September, 2000. Azerbaijan joined the project in 2005.

Through the North-South Corridor route Northern Europe and Southeast Asia will be connected. Presently Iran carries out construction work on completion of the missing link of the Qazvin-Rasht-Astara road and railway (205 kilometres (127 mi)) including the Rasht-Astara section (164 kilometres (102 mi)).

369 kilometres (229 mi) of bridges and railway line to link the southern sections to the northern ones will be constructed within the framework of the project.

Rasht-Astara section of the North-South Corridor route was completed in 2016. The remaining construction of Qazvin to Rasht rail route is nearing completion.

The current sea route via the frontiers of Western Europe, through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal takes 40 days. The North-South Corridor will reduce transport time by half. According to the project the goods that will be transported via the corridor from India to Russia and Europe will be delivered in 12 days. The annual transit through Azerbaijan will consist of millions of tonnes of freight.[16]

• Transport in Azerbaijan
• Azerbaijan Railways
• Baku Metro
• Rail transport in the Soviet Union

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rail transport in Azerbaijan.

• Azerbaijan Railways Official Site (in Azerbaijani)
• Gallery and Information of the Electric Locomotives of the Azerbaijan Railways
• "Schematic Map of the Azerbaijan Railway Network" (in Russian). Archived from the original on January 31, 2013.
• "Gallery and Information of the Electric Locomotives of the Azerbaijan Railways" (in Russian). Archived from the original on January 31, 2013.